Will Republican 'Scare-Fest ' work or backfire?

[npincus]

Aside from co-opting our national tragedy on 9/11 for craven political benefit, did anyone think the near total blackout of non-security-related issues (jobs, education, healthcare, stem cell research, abortion, etc.) and lasar-beam focus on TERROR, TERRORISM, the war on TERROR, TERROR, TERROR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR work?

Can this 4-day Orgy of Dread & Despair really change the subject for Americans who are worried about their jobs, who are uninusered or paying exhorbitant healthcare fees, who are getting robbed at the gas pump, who have family suffering from Alzheimers and believe in stem cell research, who want a balanced Supreme court, who want rights for their gay friends or family members, etc. etc. etc.?

Does anyone else find their strategy a real loser and downer?

Bush offers us smears and terror. He needs to create a seige mentality to survive. I really believe this is John Kerry's to lose (which he's doing at the moment because he has not fought back and made his case).

I know all of us at DU have a clear bias, but how do you think this gloomy stragey will play out in the general public?

And let's pray that Kerry & Co. continue to pepper their speeches with the words "unfit" and "Bush's flip-flops". It's about time.